Its Time Again

Wouldn't it be nice if a few more people on here checked their facts before blasting away at people and doubting their capacity. Yarra Park was leaked to the press well before Pert even started at MFC. My guess without any source is that some other retiring CEO wanted to make sure they protected their legacy by making sure they were given credit for the concept. It was leaked way too early and Pert has clearly been in damage control over it ever since he arrived. I hope they are working on plenty of other sites because this one seems very unlikely. Would be spectacular if LDC was right but I doubt they'll be giving up the Holden Centre ever. They might develop Vic Park but I reckon it will be in addition to what they have now.

I'm one of the people who exercised their Democratic right to place someone on Ignore. I haven't engaged with them at all but they either repeated the same view for 6 pages or just engaged in infantile arguments that lower the tenor of this place. Anyway a certain Mod has thankfully given us a month's holiday from the nameless person. Can't help thinking they are Stuie reincarnated.

Love the Ignore function. Just exercised it for the 2nd time in over 10 years on here.

Eddie Everywhere put up his hand in an interview and stated that as the President he told Pert to go in and get involved in the FD at Collingwood when it wasn't going well. Is that what you're talking about? Haven't heard of any other instances. What else do you have for saying this?

Agree. Although I suspect by the end of the season things will be looking a lot better. Mahony seems to be very highly regarded by all at the club including Perty.

Agree with you rjay. But hopefully Mahoney leads from the front in recommending this and it's not left to the new CEO to have to push it.

If I wasn't crying into my cornflakes so much at the moment this OP would be giving me a good laugh. 1. The teams failure onfield is all Pert's fault and if only Mahoney was the CEO like PJ wanted him to be none of this would have happened and we'd be sitting on top of the ladder. Oh Dear! Hang on Mahoney's the head of the FD that's failing so miserably. But it's not his fault he should be the CEO, it's Pert's fault. Hmmm interesting logic. 2. Pert shouldn't have been appointed the CEO because he meddled in the FD at Collingwood. Pert shouldn't be the CEO because the current Melbourne FD isn't performing and it's his fault and he should interfere with the FD. Hmmm interesting logic. 3. Pert shouldn't be the CEO Mahoney should be because PJ wanted a succession plan that gave him a continuing job as a mentor. It doesn't matter that the two biggest issues for the next CEO are facilities and building memberships for the long term survival of the Club. It doesn't matter that Mahoney has absolutely no experience in either of these areas and that Pert's the most experienced and successful CEO in both these areas. 4. Pert's track record so far at MFC. He came out and made a bold statement about membership targets. The following week we had the biggest single increase in year on year membership for the corresponding period that we've ever had. Our membership numbers are going to be around 15% higher than last year's record. Our best increase year on year before that has been about 5-6%. Yes part of that is due to last year's improved performance but the numbers show his direct impact on the increased memberships already. 5. Pert jumped in and gave Goodwin a contract extension. He is therefore a failure. Mahoney is the head of the FD. His role is to oversee the FD and make the personnel calls. He would send the recommendation to the CEO who should empower the person in Mahoney's position to make that call. That in turn as a process has to be ratified by the Board. Can you imagine the discontent if Pert stepped in and overruled Mahoney on this. 6. It's shaping up to be a tough off season for the FD. Unfortunately he is probably have to be engaged in that to some extent. At least in requiring a review. But ultimately he should entrust the head of the FD to do that. 7. By the end of the season with most of a full list back on the park we will be playing good footy again and most of this crisis will be a thing of the past. (I believe.) Injuries, form of so many key players and a very short pre season have created a perfect storm. It will pass. No one will be crediting Pert when that happens and neither should they.

In 2016 we set a membership record of 39,211. The hope was we’d get to 40,000 the next season. We’ve just hit 40,000 and it’s mid March. At the rate of increase in the last 2 weeks we’ll crack over 50,000. That was a dream just 3 years ago and the Club has only just reached finals for the first time. You can see that 60,000 doesn’t seem like such a pipe dream in the next couple of years.

I don't know if anyone else has said this already. In a funny way May getting reported now for one match might be the best thing that could happen to him as he starts his career at the Demons. The one worry for me with getting him was his track record of getting reported. He must be spewing about it and feeling he's let his new team down straight away. I'm sure that will burn in him more than if it happened after he'd been playing here for a while. If the result is that this makes him fix the problem and it never happens again then I'll take the week.

Interestingly since the article that prompted this OP the membership has jumped ahead over 1000 compared to the increase in the same week last year. That's the biggest difference at this time of the year possibly ever. So either Perty's MCC strategy is working or just getting articles out there like this one have focused supporters on getting memberships. Either way we could see a big jump if this continues.

When I first saw the headlines, I was thinking what the...... Why would you set such ridiculous targets but I read the article and see where Perty is coming from. He didn't actually say he was setting any targets. He is saying you could tell by the numbers at the finals that the supporters are out there to potentially reach those sort of numbers. Obviously the challenge is to convert them to members. He is explaining he has already initiated a strategy of working with the MCC to communicate more aggressively with their MFC supporting members to convert them to MFC memberships. I believe there's over 10,000 of them. I'm one of them but have been an MFC member for over 20 years continuously and over 30 on and off. The problem is you are asking all of those people to basically donate the membership without getting anything of real value back. I do it to support the Club but it's a different challenge than converting supporters to members who are going to get access to games they wouldn't otherwise get access to. I believe there's also over 8000 lapsed members. Get those on board and the MCC and you're looking at 66,000 members. In one sense these are the low lying fruit compared to going out and converting non supporters to supporters then members. That's obviously the long term plan. It was only when PJ arrived that we were dreaming of reaching 40,000. 50,000 seemed a long way away. Hopefully we hit it this year. If we get 50,000+ it shows these strategies are staring to wok. If they really bit and we got 55,000 this year it would be basically double the biggest annual increase we've ever had. You can see why Perty got appointed. There's no one more experienced or successful at converting supporters to members. He basically doubled the membership in his time at the Pies by doing this. We are in good hands.

I find it really interesting that the MFC only sign short contract extensions of a couple of years. I wonder if this is player driven or Club driven. As far as I'm concerned Salem has proven he can play at the level and beyond. (He's not a Weideman where there's not enough proof yet. Hopefully there is by the end of this season.) So why wouldn't you sign him up for 4 years not 2. Preuss is one of the only players who's been given a 4 year contract. Go figure.

I compiled the table of historical membership numbers on the membership thread and I follow it each year for trends. To me the membership numbers are the best gauge of the Club's health. On the current membership growth rate compared to other years on the table we are heading towards just under or just over 50,000. We had a pre Christmas jump of about 4000 compared to last year but since then it is increasing at about the same rate. For some reason most of the membership growth year on year seems to happen pre Christmas not around round 1 which is what I would have expected. The Club will have to do something very different to previous years to make a 15,000 to 20,000 jump on last year which would represent a 24% at 60,000 to 35% increase at 70,000. So far the numbers show about an 8% growth which is well ahead of the past few years which is around 5-6% increase.

I can help you with this. I know a bit about body language. Did he shake his head up and down or side to side. The answer will offer a clue to his state of mind and body.

Bet you didn't say that when Jacko did it and that was incestuous.

......and Beyond

Interesting binman. What a minefield that decision is going to be next season. Petty clearly is holding his arm. It's one thing to push someone but surely it's another to actually grab hold of their arm and hold onto it to twist their body away from the contest. I thought the only change to the rules was that you can put hands on the back now as long as it isn't a push. Good luck to the poor umpires deciding when hands in the back are or aren't a push. If I was a forward I'd just lung forward just a bit when I feel the hands on my back. How could an umpire tell if it is a push or a dive. I can hear the supporters howls from here. Including mine. And it's probably not the umpires fault. Talking about rule changes. I can't believe they didn't do away with the ruckman having to nominate and just give a free if two players from the same team go up in the ruck contest. That rule very nearly cost us a finals spot thanks to Dangerfield's antics. The other is the protected area. I guess that can be fixed by interpretation rather than changing the rule itself. But this season this rule was completely inconsistent and potentially disastrous in several games.

I've got SpecSavers. I better swap.

When I was there last week I was standing next to someone and we identified the drone and couldn't believe how steady it was. Just didn't move. We looked again some time later and it was still rock solid in exactly the same position. I was fascinated then realised why it was so steady. It actually wasn't a drone it was a street lamp. I'd be taking my training reports with a grain of salt if I get back there again. I now fear I might have given a training report on the Melbourne Storm by accident.

As a Junior coach I always followed the AFL bred philosophy. Train like you play. In this case this would clearly be a free against Petty. Don't see the point of this other than a good philosophical exercise for Nietschke in practicing body contact.

Would love to know if it's all been spent just on the Yarra Park idea. I've heard opinions from various people who work in the planning area that it is very unlikely to get up. That's a hell of a lot of money to spend on a very speculative proposal. All political parties have come out opposing it. What worries me about this site is that we might be throwing everything in for the location not necessarily the long term suitability. I mean, I'm sure they are thinking about it but if we ended up with a facility like Richmond's at Punt Rd that would be an incredible result. Obviously without the Grandstands. But Richmond spent a fortune doing that up just 5 or 6 years ago and they have grown out of it already and are looking for something else, possibly in addition to rather than replacing it all together. So if that's too small for them why is ours going to be big enough for us. Look at what Essendon have built and Hawthorn are about to build. They are massive facilities with 2 to 4 grounds to train on including indoor facilities. We will have a piece of parkland fully open to the public that we will have restricted access to part of the time as the public will have access to it as well.

If he's directly opposite it will take away his view into the Park. I'd be dead against it if I was him as well. His building would be the only group of people who will be effected by it. On a much more interesting note. The Club's accounts show that they spent $227,000 on this project in the past year. That's serious money. Love to know what it was spent on.

ET you must get that a lot. Good to see you haven't taken it too personally.

Hopefully Hunt hones his skills and becomes one of those outside mids or perhaps the other one with KK. If Jeffy rediscovers his magic we could be the compete team you'r looking for.

Woops apparently Bell has gone to Melbourne.